School organization - Further research questions:

• Researchers should make explicit their principles for selecting effective schools and classrooms.  These principles should be based on some combination of indicators of process and outcomes and local priorities and contexts should influence their definition.
• Research should investigate how definitions of effectiveness interact with local site characteristics and student characteristics.
• Research should examine the extent to which “generic” reform efforts incorporate English-language learners.
• There is a clear need for research to examine the effects of instructional interventions and social environments on the linguistic, social, and cognitive development of young children.
• More studies are needed to identify attributes of effective middle and secondary schools and classrooms serving English-language learners.
• Research is needed to assess the effectiveness of newcomer programs, either in relationship to each other or compared to nothing at all.
• What methods work best within a given community to give English-language learners access to the academic and social opportunities that native English speakers have while they are learning English?
• Involving families of English-language learners and engaging community resources on their behalf poses special challenges for schools.  More research is needed to provide information about the challenges to such involvement and engagement, the potential benefits, and successful approaches.
• Research is needed to determine the resources required for effective instruction of English-language learners in different contexts.
• Prospective research that examines the school change process is needed, beginning from the point before a school undertakes change, to document the processes and outcomes on a sound theoretical and programmatic basis.  In addition, future research should examine the benefits and shortcomings of different improvement strategies, again using models and programs already in existence.

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From:
Improving Schooling for Language-Minority Children: A Research Agenda, edited by Diane August and Kenji Hakuta, 1997.
Chapter 7 – Studies of School and Classroom Effectiveness